1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image synthesis device and an image synthesis method which combine a plurality of frame images successively acquired by image pickup to create a synthesized panorama image, and a memory medium storing an image synthesis program for same.
2. Description of the Related Art
As disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. H11-282100, there is presently proposed an image pickup device which combines individual images of a plurality of picked-up frames and synthesizes a panorama image to obtain an angle of view which is greater than or equal to that acquired through one picked-up frame.
In synthesizing a panorama image, an image pickup device extracts a characteristic point adjacent to the central part of a picked-up image, detects the coordinates thereof, detects the coordinates of the same characteristic point in an image picked up next, and combines and synthesizes the successive images in such a way that the characteristic points match with each other to obtain a panorama image.
In this way, according to the conventional image pickup device, it is determined whether or not one frame image can be accurately synthesized with the other successive frame image based on whether or not there is a characteristic point adjacent to the central part of the one frame image.